Suffering heavy losses, Barry wrestles with the notion that he needs the palace’s support to survive. As paranoia builds within Jamal, he questions where Rami’s loyalty lies. Stricken by Abdul’s death, Sammy plans to give his money to insurgents fighting the Army of the Caliphate.

Mark A. Perigard

Lori Rackl

The pilot is riveting but, like our protagonist Barry, a bit joyless. Here’s hoping the series doesn’t collapse under the weight of its own gravitas; it’s a compelling premise that plays out in a part of the world not often seen on TV.

Rob Owen

Robert Bianco

In essence, Tyrant is a ruling-family variant on The Godfather, shifted from Italy and America to the Middle East. But don't dismiss the shift out of hand: That move is precisely what makes Tyrant so intriguing--and so troubling.

Joanne Ostrow

The cinematography is stunning, the music and atmospherics are immersive. With occasional hiccups the acting is mostly subtle. Suspension of disbelief will be required (how else can Bassam/Barry slip out of his father's palace in the middle of the night to rendez-vous with an old journalist buddy?) But Tyrant is worth the effort.

Ed Bark

Melissa Maerz

Gordon has said that he's trying to dramatize the "complexity" of the Middle East, but there's not a lot of depth to the pilot.... If there's one thing that saves Tyrant, it's Bassam. By the end of the pilot, he's not the boring, all-moral hero that he seems.

Robert Rorke

The Middle East of Gordon’s Tyrant is as explosive as on “24” and “Homeland,” but he’s much better at letting the special effects guys manufacture the blasts than he is at creating those moments with his characters.

Gail Pennington

The first episode of Tyrant, the only one I've seen, is both exotic (the cultural elements surrounding the wedding are fascinating) and unfortunately trite, to the point of embracing stereotypes about the Middle East that some early viewers have found offensive.

Tim Goodman

The pilot is strong and closes with a cliffhanger element that should bring back a sizeable chunk of the tune-in audience.... but having no other episodes to find out in what direction the series wants to go--not just with Barry/Bassam, but where the core of its stories will come from (family or politics), means it’s too early to give a definitive endorsement to Tyrant, despite its potential.

Vicki Hyman

Terri Schwartz

The new FX drama from "Homeland" and "24" executive producer Howard Gordon balances family with politics in a show that constantly questions what the right choice is when torn between the two, but oftentimes finds itself bogged down in soap opera-style drama that distracts from the greater, more ambitious story that it's trying to tell.

Sarah Rodman

It has some compelling elements and some weaknesses, but since so much of what happens in the pilot is pure setup, it’s hard to tell where it’s going to go and if it will do so in a way that is engrossing or, given its subject matter, problematic.

Kristi Turnquist

Brian Lowry

While the subject matter certainly feels timely given chaotic events abroad and the show possesses a strong creative pedigree, it also suffers from a sense of self-importance that drags at the whole exercise.

Mark Dawidziak

As Barry struggles with his sense of identity, so does this series. There is little consistency of tone here, and the efforts to depict a realistic Middle Eastern political struggle are undermined by campy and melodramatic moments.

James Poniewozik

Matt Roush

Some ambitious but flawed dramas get better the more you watch. Tyrant is not one of them. The plotting is obvious, the characters broadly and shallowly drawn, and authenticity evaporates the moment you realize everyone in this land is speaking in clipped Faux-rabian British accents like out of some '40s melodrama.

Hank Stuever

Maureen Ryan

It's surprising to me that this ever got past the development stage, because nothing about Tyrant truly works. It's a halting, strained hodgepodge that ends up being an awkward mixture of bland and offensive.